Salspera has set out plans for a $91 million IPO to fund the phase 3 study of its bacteria-based cancer therapy.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech is hoping to offer 5.6 million shares priced between $14 and $16, according to a March 10 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Assuming the final price lands in the middle of this range, Salspera expects to bring in net proceeds of $78.4 million.
Underwriters would also have the option to buy an additional 850,000 shares, which could bring total proceeds up to $91.2 million, Salspera explained in the filing.
If the IPO goes ahead, Salspera will list its stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker “TKVA.”
Top of the list of spending priorities is the biotech’s lead candidate saltikva, a strain of salmonella bacteria that has been engineered to express the human gene interleukin-2 (IL-2). As IL-2 increases populations of NK and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells in tumors and peripheral blood, the idea is that saltikva therefore acts as an immunotherapy by killing cancer cells.
Salspera has already completed a phase 2 study of saltikva in combination with chemotherapy to treat patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. In that trial, the therapy demonstrated lower tumor burden and increased progression-free survival and overall survival, according to Salspera’s filing.
The biotech is now gearing up for phase 3 studies of saltikva in stage 4 pancreatic cancer, an indication where it has received orphan drug and fast-track tags from the FDA.
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The company’s strategy also includes exploring saltikva’s potential to treat other solid tumors, including osteosarcoma—for which it received an orphan tag in November—and colorectal cancer.
Salspera currently only lists two employees: CEO Eddie Moradian, Ph.D., who previously ran biopharma contract research services provider MD Biosciences; and Chief Medical Officer Daniel Saltzman, M.D., who developed the company’s live biotherapeutics platform.
After a lull of biotech IPOs in 2025, Salspera is joining a growing list of drug developers voicing an interest in the public markets. CEOs of companies that already made the leap this year told Fierce they had detected a positive change in sentiment toward biotech IPOs in recent months.
